Category Archives: Uncategorized

Still here!

Posted on April 13, 2017 by Irene Elizabeth (Beth!) Stroud

It’s been almost two years since I’ve added anything on this blog, and occasionally a guest posts a comment asking if I am still here. I am! I’ve been thriving with lung cancer for more than four years now. Crizotinib … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 11 Comments

When you take a pill, drink ALL the water!

Posted on June 30, 2015 by Irene Elizabeth (Beth!) Stroud

I’m prone to swallowing my pills with just a tiny sip of water, or, in a pinch, none at all. It makes me feel like the BOSS of pill taking. This is not such a good approach, as I recently … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 7 Comments

5K for lung cancer research

Posted on October 19, 2014 by Irene Elizabeth (Beth!) Stroud

Life has been complicated and unbloggable. However, my health remains good. I keep having one clean CAT scan after another. I’ve been working up to running a 5K, using the Couch to 5K running program. I am very slow (some … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments

Acquired Resistance Patient Forum

Posted on August 2, 2014 by Irene Elizabeth (Beth!) Stroud

The major concern with my miracle drug, and others like it, is acquired resistance. Targeted therapies such as crizotinib work beautifully against cancers with the target mutations they are designed to exploit, but not forever. Eventually, the cancer mutates again, … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

11 months and counting

Posted on August 1, 2014 by Irene Elizabeth (Beth!) Stroud

I just had another beautiful CT scan last week, marking my eleventh month of progression-free survival on crizotinib (Xalkori). The doctor said that results from the study are starting to suggest that people with the ROS1 mutation may actually do … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 8 Comments

Life beyond lung cancer

Posted on April 7, 2014 by Irene Elizabeth (Beth!) Stroud

A strange thing has happened in the past couple of months: I’ve become intensely involved in finishing my final qualifying exam and my dissertation proposal, which have nothing whatsoever to do with lung cancer. I’ve been working with a coach … Continue reading →

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Breast cancer, lung cancer, AIDS: unorthodox thoughts about stigma

Posted on February 10, 2014 by Irene Elizabeth (Beth!) Stroud

Lung cancer research gets far less public attention and research funding than other, less deadly cancers. It’s often perceived as a disease people bring on themselves by smoking, or a disease that could have been prevented by not smoking. Until … Continue reading →

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A brief pause for research

Posted on February 4, 2014 by Irene Elizabeth (Beth!) Stroud

There are all kinds of things I still want to blog about. A long list. I’m coming to the end of what I know just from being a patient, though. I thought I was going to keep blogging Monday through … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments

Living with lung cancer: Respect the fatigue

Posted on February 3, 2014 by Irene Elizabeth (Beth!) Stroud

A friend who’d been through cancer and chemotherapy brought us gifts: a soft, fleecy blanket and a pillow for each of us. “Whenever you need a nap, take one,” she said. “These are to remind you.” Ironically, we’d visited this … Continue reading →

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Three biopsies in eight months

Posted on January 31, 2014 by Irene Elizabeth (Beth!) Stroud

In my first post, “Lung Cancer: What I Wish I’d Known in the First 72 Hours,” I said I wished I had known to ask the doctor to take extra tissue in the initial biopsy. It might have helped me … Continue reading →

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